Talk about an odd couple. Will and Grace star Debra Messing is teaming up with Love/Hate cop Brian F O'Byrne in a new Broadway rom-com.

Brian posted a picture of the duo posing in front of a green screen for a series of publicity shots for Outside Mullingar.

The light-hearted play, which has been dubbed “the Irish Moonstruck” will open in January at the Samuel J Friedman Theatre in Manhattan.

Written by Pulitzer, Oscar and Tony award-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley, it is predicted to be a big hit.

The play focuses on “two introverted misfits straddling 40”.

It's not the first time O'Byrne has teamed up with playwright Shanley.

The Million Dollar Baby actor starred as Fr Flynn in Stanley's Broadway production of Doubt. Earlier this year, Shanley was awarded the Irish American Writers & Artists Eugene O'Neill Lifetime Achievement award.

He was an obvious nominee as his father is from Westmeath and he has written an array of outstanding stage and screen plays. But Shanley said he was always hesitant to bill himself as an Irish writer. “I've avoided writing as an Irishman most of my life,” he said.

“I wanted to be an American writer. If you're an Irish-American writer the critics discount 46pc of your talent as a natural, genetic by-product.”